


No Hay Mañana

by Dezasaurus_Rex



Category: Gorillaz
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 01:49:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13753710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dezasaurus_Rex/pseuds/Dezasaurus_Rex
Summary: An AU in which Gorillaz never recovered from the El Mañana disaster.It was all just the dreams of a broken man.(Loosely connects to my previous fic, Don't Leave Me Here, if you squint hard enough)





	No Hay Mañana

It never happened.  
It should have, but, it didn't.

2D was never gassed in Beirut. Was never shoved into a suitcase and shipped to Point Nemo.  
Oh, of course he would have been, but... well, he was harder to track than you'd think.  
He never stepped foot on Plastic Beach.

Russel had spent enough of his life with ghosts, that he'd figured out how to become one himself. The drummer had virtually disappeared. Hell, he might have actually thrown himself into the ocean, who knows...  
But he certainly didn't swim for weeks on end, absorbing chemicals from the polluted water, turning him into a massive giant.  
He never reunited with Noodle.

Noodle...  
It all started with Noodle, really...  
From the day she arrived on their doorstep, tucked inside that FedEx crate...

Murdocs' life began that day.  
His band was born!   
His dreams were finally coming true!

All because of her. Just a tiny, little thing; played guitar like a legend and could kick zombie ass! Mischievous and smart as a whip too!

His life ended the same day hers did.

Noodle died while filming the El Mañana music video.

No, she wasn't killed by bad guys in helicopters, those were CGI. Added in, after...

She died because of an accident on the set. A simple mechanical error. The windmill wasn't supposed to fall, there shouldn't have been an explosion.  
It wasn't supposed to happen, but, it did.

Shortly after, Russel left. No goodbyes, just a note on the table, 'I don't want to be found.'

2D stayed for a week longer. Endured countless beatings and yet, each night, he let Murdoc cling to him and sob drunken apologies into his chest. And then, one night, he left. Took one last beating and, sometime after Murdoc finally passed out, he... vanished.

Murdoc was alone.  
For a very long time.

 

Eventually, inevitably, he had to do... something.   
Fire was supposed to be cleansing; watching the only place he'd ever truly considered 'home' burn, was... not.  
But, what was done, was done. He collected the insurance money and set out for Point Nemo.

While Murdoc was building Plastic Beach, he was also working on something else. He tried not to think about it, tried not to dwell on it...  
Building a Cyborg replica of the closest thing you've ever had to a daughter is a... morally questionable thing to do, after all.

The same day the finishing touch was put on the island, Cyborg Noodle was fully functional for the first time.

Murdoc spent months looking for Russel and 2D, turning up empty handed and broken hearted, every single night. When he wasn't searching, he stayed busy; building, drinking... not thinking about it...

Cyborg Russel was functional first.

Cyborg Noodle and Cyborg Russel didn't speak; they couldnt. Murdoc had programmed them to learn how to follow verbal commands and to read and respond appropriately to body language. It was hard to program a voice... and, really, it had been so long since Murdoc had heard their voices, had heard any voice...  
He couldnt... couldn't even begin to try...  
He'd forgotten their voices.  
He drank.

But, his singer needed a voice. Needed the right voice; 2D's voice. And, oh yes, Murdoc remembered 2D's voice. He heard it in his dreams, every night; the way he hit every note flawlessly... heard the pitch and whine in his singers voice as he begged for mercy from Murdoc's iron-like fists.  
He drank.

The same day Cyborg 2D sang for the first time, Murdoc drank himself half to death. As he lay in a puddle of his own waste, he began to dream; of music and whales, pirates and collaborators, Russel, 2D, Noodle, coming back to him...

Time passed slowly on Plastic Beach. Murdoc spent most days drinking and avoiding his Cyborg creations, and, not thinking about it...

He spent his nights dreaming. About a crooked monster wearing a cape, about music videos, about a radio station... About a haunted house, a club, his band, together, happy...

Murdoc never left Plastic Beach.  
He never got his band back, could never bring himself to use their Cyborg likenesses to do anything other than keep him company...

There were no more albums, no more tours, no more Gorillaz. 

None of it ever happened.   
It should have, but, it didn't.

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired to write this after a conversation with a friend in the Gorillaz amino. 
> 
> Everything hurts and I'm sorry Murdoc...


End file.
